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[Ronski]

How about one with 4 x 2.5GbE and 2 x 10GbE ?

https://www.servethehome.com/new-4x-2-5gbe-and-2x-10gbe-intel-core-firewall-and-virtualization-appliance/

[Alex Atkin UK]

Shame they borked the CPU cooling.

With these custom appliances I'm kinda disappointed they haven't gone all out and used a switch chip for the slower ports by now, though I have no idea if pfSense supports that, OpenWRT should (though I don't know what bus is used to talk to switch chips).

[Ronski]

New router arrived today, its heavy, it weighs 1.15kg

Now just need to get it setup, I'll aim to go live at the weekend, when I have more time available.

[Alex Atkin UK]

I thought mine had died recently, turns out my shoddy crimping was causing the NIC port to bounce.  At least I assume it was that as did the sensible thing and unplugged it, tugged on the cable a bit then plugged it back in. 

Quite impressive given its running over PoE that it didn't just shut down the router entirely.

[Chrysalis]

Hopefully goes well Ronski.  If its all positive I can see myself grabbing one.

[Ronski]

One HDMI port doesn't work, it did briefly but a bit fuzzy, so not sure if it's faulty hardware or something else, I think it's the former. Going to install Windows tonight and see what that does.

Don't really need the second port, but it really should be working.

[Ronski]

There is definitely a hardware issue, possibly a dry joint as wiggling the HDMI cable briefly gets a picture. Tried two different cables, and two different monitors, also installed Window's to be absolutely sure.

I've contacted the seller on AliExpress, lets see how good their support is.

The display port, and the bottom HDMI port both work, just the top one doesn't, given what I'm going to use it for I'd settle for a decent discount, but lets see what they suggest.

[Alex Atkin UK]

At least its an obvious issue, one of the boxes I bought randomly locks up and I have no idea why.  It did run hot initially so I re-pasted the SoC which brought the temps down dramatically, I could run Folding@Home on it and it would stay within the acceptable operating temperature.

It seem to have nothing to do with load as F@H could run for a week sometimes, but even if I left it running just KTorrent it would lockup.  I did provide my own RAM but I think I actually ran MemTest for a few days with no issues there.

I didn't have the energy to deal with trying to return something from China given it would likely cost more than buying a newer box as the cost per CPU performance of these things has been dropping quite rapidly over the last few years as they catch up with newer hardware.

Fortunately the N5105 I bought to use instead (as I had hoped to hack 2.5G to the older box but couldn't get that to work) has been fine.

[Chrysalis]

The thermal compound out the factory was poor on my unit, I dropped my temps quite a lot by reapplying it, I posted it on the pfsense forums with pics and a how to, some others did the same with similar results.  End of the day they are cheap I suppose so wont be the best quality control.

I expect you will keep the unit and just seeing if a discount is offered?

[Alex Atkin UK]

I left it too long before noticing the issue.  To be honest it gives you so much control in the BIOS, it could be something is configured wrong or a bad PSU.  That's both good and bad in that some of these give you access to all the stuff motherboard vendors usually hard-code in the BIOS.

The N5105 seems to have decent compound installation, given I can see a difference in temperature between having it vertical and horizontal, vertical being cooler due to convection from the relatively tiny fins on the case.

[Ronski]

This case did get rather toasty after installing Windows, so I expect good thermal coupling between the CPU and the case, hopefully!

I expect you will keep the unit and just seeing if a discount is offered?

Yeah, hopefully they'll offer a partial refund, just don't expect to pay full price and have an HDMI port that doesn't work.

They've suggested I update the Windows drivers, but that's not the issue as it does it in the BIOS as well, and wiggling the cable where it plugs in causes the image to come and go, so either faulty socket or dry joint.

[Alex Atkin UK]

They've suggested I update the Windows drivers

I've just sent a portable monitor back to Amazon that I was using on my CCTV DVR as I rebooted the DVR and the screen never came back on.  Power cycling it never displayed the splash screen, the panel was just dead.  Yet they told me to:

Fix 1: Force restart your computer.
Fix 2: Check if your monitor is working.
Fix 3: Reconnect your monitor to your computer.
Fix 4: Disconnect your peripherals.
Fix 5: Reinstall your RAM.
Fix 6: Reset your BIOS settings to default.

That last one is particularly concerning as anyone who doesn't know what they're doing would likely lead to an unbootable PC.

I said its not connected to a PC as my response, though I had of course already told them before that I had tested it on multiple devices and sound still came through, just no picture.

[Ronski]

It's rediculous isn't it, and as you say very stupid advice.

The offered me $10 to start with, got (presuming they actually refund it) $20 in the end, couldn't be bothered to push for more.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Seems fair considering the profit margin was likely quite low on the unit, they'd be giving it away, maybe they still are as its more economical than a return.

[Ronski]

Its a 10% discount for a faulty product, not a great discount, but better than sending it back and faffing about.